There’s a pattern I’m seeing more and more in growing companies. They don’t know what to call the person handling operations. So they give them a bigger title
.
Director of Operations.
VP of Operations.
Head of Operations.
Integrator.
Sometimes even COO.
VP of Operations.
Head of Operations.
Integrator.
Sometimes even COO.
The problem is that a lot of these people aren’t actually doing those jobs.
Before we get into what those roles should actually look like, download the Process Optimization Audit Checklist. It will help you take a closer look at how your processes are working today and where there may be opportunities to improve.
They’re coordinating meetings. Managing vendors. Following up on tasks. Handling administrative work. Keeping projects moving. Maybe managing a few people.
All of that work can be incredibly valuable. But it doesn’t make someone a COO.
And when we inflate the title without expanding the actual scope, authority, and accountability of the role, we create an entirely new set of problems.
This matters because the duties and responsibilities of a COO are substantial. A Chief Operating Officer isn’t simply the person who keeps everything organized. A COO is an executive responsible for turning strategy into execution across the organization.
So before you make someone your COO, there’s a more important question to answer: What are they actually accountable for?
Titles Aren’t Retention Tools
Sometimes title inflation starts with good intentions. You have a great employee. You want them to feel valued. You don’t necessarily have the budget for a major compensation increase, so you give them a bigger title.
Or the company has grown and the founder thinks, We need someone to own operations. The person who has been keeping everything together gets promoted from Office Manager to Director of Operations. Then Head of Operations. Then COO.
But their actual responsibilities barely change. That’s where things get messy. This is because titles create expectations. They create expectations around compensation. They create expectations around authority. They create expectations around career trajectory.
And perhaps most importantly, they communicate to the rest of the organization what this person is accountable for. If someone’s title says COO but they’re functioning as an Operations Manager, you’ve created a mismatch between perceived authority and actual responsibility. That’s not good for the employee or the company.
And role clarity isn’t a minor HR issue. Gallup reported that in the first half of 2026, only 49% of U.S. employees strongly agreed that they know what is expected of them at work. Gallup’s research has also connected clarity of expectations with outcomes including productivity, retention, safety, customer engagement, and employee well-being.
A bigger title doesn’t create clarity. Clear responsibility does.
The Bigger Problem: Your Ops Person Becomes the Middleman
Title inflation also hides a much bigger operational problem. In many companies, “operations” becomes the place where everything that doesn’t have an obvious home gets dumped.
Need someone to follow up with Marketing?
Ops.
Need someone to organize the leadership meeting?
Ops.
Need someone to remind Sales about the thing they promised Finance?
Ops.
Need someone to chase everyone for their updates?
Ops.
Eventually, your operations leader becomes the organizational middleman. They’re moving information between departments, following up on other people’s responsibilities, putting out fires, and trying to keep the trains running. They’re busy. They might even be indispensable. But they’re not necessarily improving the operation. And that’s the distinction I care about.
A strong operations function should make the organization less dependent on the operations person over time, not more dependent on them.
Operations should be building systems, improving processes, clarifying ownership, eliminating recurring problems, improving cross-functional performance, and creating the infrastructure that allows the business to scale.
If your COO spends most of Monday asking six people whether they completed their tasks, you probably don’t have a COO problem. You have an accountability problem with a very expensive middleman.
What Are the Duties and Responsibilities of a COO?
There isn’t one universal COO job description. That’s important.
The roles and responsibilities of a COO vary depending on the company, industry, stage of growth, leadership structure, and the CEO’s own strengths. But the role should operate at an enterprise level.
McKinsey’s research on the COO agenda describes responsibilities that include translating vision into execution, developing the organization and its talent, engaging key stakeholders, improving operational performance, and establishing an operating model that can deliver the company’s strategy.
That’s very different from coordinating work. A true COO should have meaningful authority over how the organization operates.
They should be able to:
- Make consequential cross-functional decisions
- Translate the CEO’s strategy into company-wide execution
- Allocate resources and influence priorities
- Hold senior leaders accountable for operational performance
- Improve how functions work together
- Shape organizational structure and operating rhythms
- Develop leaders and strengthen management capability
- Identify systemic operational problems and ensure they get solved
- Build an organization capable of executing without constant executive intervention
Notice what’s missing from that list. Chasing task updates. Running every meeting. Acting as the founder’s administrative right hand.
Being the person everyone calls when they don’t know who owns something. Those may occasionally be part of the work, especially in a smaller company. But they shouldn’t define the role.
So What Should You Actually Call Your Operations Person?
There isn’t a perfect universal hierarchy because operations titles vary enormously by company.
But here’s a useful way to think about them.
Operations Coordinator / Administrator
This person helps the operation run. They coordinate schedules, maintain systems, organize information, support projects, handle administrative workflows, and make sure important details don’t fall through the cracks.
Their primary role is execution and coordination. That’s valuable work. It just isn’t executive operational leadership.
Operations Manager
An Operations Manager owns specific operational processes or functions. They aren’t just coordinating the work anymore. They’re responsible for ensuring certain processes actually perform.
They may manage people, identify problems, track metrics, standardize workflows, and implement improvements.
Their primary role is managing operational performance.
This is one of the most important distinctions when comparing an Operations
Manager vs. COO.
An Operations Manager generally owns performance within a defined area.
A COO owns operational performance across the enterprise.
Director of Operations
Now the scope gets broader.
A Director of Operations typically owns multiple operational areas and is responsible for improving how those areas work together. They should be looking across processes rather than simply managing individual tasks.
They’re developing managers, driving improvement initiatives, establishing operating rhythms, and translating company priorities into operational execution.
Their primary role is building and improving the operating system within a meaningful portion of the company.
Head of Operations
This title can mean almost anything, which is precisely why companies should be careful with it.
Generally, I think of Head of Operations as the senior-most operations leader in an organization where the scope doesn’t yet warrant a traditional executive structure. They may perform some Director-level responsibilities and some executive-level responsibilities.
The important question isn’t the title.
It’s: What decisions can this person make without the founder?
That answer will tell you far more about the maturity of the role than the words on their LinkedIn profile.
VP of Operations
A VP should have significant organizational scope.
They’re typically leading leaders, owning major operational outcomes, translating strategy into execution across multiple functions, and making consequential decisions about resources, priorities, people, and performance.
Their job isn’t to keep the trains running. Their job is to make the railroad better.
COO
COO is an executive role. A true COO is responsible for the operating performance of the business at an enterprise level.
They’re not the founder’s executive assistant with a better title. They’re not simply the person who runs the weekly leadership meeting. And they’re not the most organized person in the company.
A COO should have meaningful authority over how the organization operates. They should be able to make cross-functional decisions, allocate resources, hold senior leaders accountable, shape organizational structure, and translate the
CEO’s strategy into company-wide execution. That’s a very different job. And the role is becoming more strategic, not less.
McKinsey found that COOs they interviewed were spending only about one-third of their time on long-term strategic planning, with the remainder divided between overseeing people and addressing current operational priorities. Their research argues that the modern COO role has become broader and more transformative as operational complexity increases.
If the person you’re calling COO has neither strategic responsibility nor enterprise-level authority, I’d question whether COO is the right title.
Integrator
“Integrator” has become increasingly popular, particularly in companies using EOS.
It’s useful terminology when you’re actually using that operating model. But I would be cautious about using it as a generic substitute for “operations person.”
An Integrator isn’t simply someone who keeps everyone organized. The role is intended to integrate major functions, drive execution of the company’s priorities, resolve cross-functional issues, and create accountability across the leadership team.
Again: Scope matters more than title.
When in Doubt, Start Smaller
Here’s the rule I’d encourage more founders to follow:
Don’t give someone the title for the job you hope they’ll eventually grow into. Give them the title for the job they’re accountable for today.
Then let the title grow as the scope grows. If you’re creating an operations function for the first time, you probably don’t need to start with a COO.
Start with the smallest level of authority necessary to solve the problem. Maybe that’s an Operations Manager.
As the company becomes more complex, that role might grow into Director of Operations.
Eventually, the person might lead leaders, own multiple functions, and become a VP. And someday the organization may become complex enough that it truly needs a COO. That’s healthy progression.
Because every increase in title should represent an increase in:
Scope. Authority. Complexity. Accountability.
Not tenure. Not loyalty. Not how much you like the person. And definitely not fear that they’ll leave if you don’t give them a fancier title.
When Should a Company Hire a COO?
I wouldn’t start with revenue. I’d start with complexity.
Ask: What has become so operationally complex that it requires an enterprise-level executive to own it?
Revenue is an imperfect proxy for operational complexity. A smaller company with multiple locations, complicated service delivery, regulatory requirements, and dozens of employees could have a legitimate need for senior operational leadership.
A much larger professional services firm with straightforward delivery, strong department leaders, and well-designed processes might not.
So I wouldn’t create a hard revenue rule for when to hire a COO.
In fact, even among very large organizations, having a COO isn’t automatic. McKinsey reported that 40% of leading companies had a COO in 2022, up from 32% in 2018 but still well below half. That’s worth paying attention to.
If some of the largest and most complex companies in the world don’t automatically require a COO, a growing company shouldn’t assume that reaching a certain revenue number means it needs one either.
The better questions are:
- Has the operational complexity exceeded what the CEO and existing leadership team can effectively manage?
- Does someone need enterprise-wide authority to coordinate execution across functions?
- Are major operational decisions getting stuck with the founder?
- Does the business need an executive who can translate strategy into an operating system capable of delivering it?
If the answer is yes, you may be approaching the point where a COO makes sense. But often, what the founder actually needs is clearer processes, stronger accountability, better management systems, more capable department leaders, and someone with explicit ownership of operational improvement.
Putting a COO title on top of those problems doesn’t solve them. Sometimes it actually makes them harder to see.
Titles Should Follow Responsibility
There’s nothing wrong with being an Operations Manager.
There’s nothing wrong with being an Office Manager.
There’s nothing wrong with being a Director of Operations.
These are valuable roles.
The mistake is assuming that importance requires a bigger title.
I’d rather have an exceptional Operations Manager who knows exactly what they own, continuously improves it, and produces measurable results than a COO whose primary function is chasing everyone around the company.
So before you promote your operations person, ask:
- What new scope are they taking on?
- What decisions will they now own?
- What results will they be accountable for?
- What authority will they have that they didn’t have before?
If you can’t answer those questions, you probably don’t need a promotion.
You need a clearer job description.
Stop handing out COO titles. Start handing out clear ownership.
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