The First 90 Days of a New COO: Strategies for Building a Strong Leadership Foundation

The first ninety days of a Chief Operating Officer’s tenure decide more than most boards expect. Not because the important work happens in that window — it rarely does — but because the organisation forms a view of the appointment within about six weeks, and that view is difficult to revise afterwards.

This is a practical transition plan: what to establish before making any decisions, when to form a view on the team, which early win to choose, and the mistakes that make the following year harder. It is written by a firm that places these appointments — COO recruitment — and sees which transitions hold.

Before day one

Two conversations are worth having before you start, and both are easier before you are an employee.

Settle decision rights with the CEO in writing. Which decisions are yours, which are theirs, which go to the board, and what your approval threshold is. This is the single commonest cause of COO failure and the only point at which it is comfortable to raise. A chief executive who cannot name three decisions they will stop making is not yet ready for the appointment, and it is better to know that now.

Ask what the board thinks the problem is. If you can, speak to the Chair separately. Boards and chief executives sometimes have different accounts of why the role exists, and the gap between them is usually where the difficulty lies.

Also establish whether you will be appointed as a statutory director and registered at Companies House. If so you carry duties including the obligation under section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to promote the success of the company, together with personal exposure — and directors’ and officers’ cover should reflect it.

Weeks one to three: listen and count

Resist the pressure to announce anything. New COOs are frequently expected to arrive with a plan, and arriving with one before you understand the business is how you end up defending a position you no longer believe.

Meet two levels down, not one. Your direct reports will tell you what they want you to know. The layer beneath them will tell you what is actually happening. Book those conversations yourself rather than having them arranged.

Read twelve months of board packs and management accounts. You are looking for what the board has been told repeatedly and what has not changed as a result. Recurring items are usually unresolved problems that have become furniture.

Establish where the cash goes. Not the budget — the cash. Cost to serve by customer or product line, if anyone has it. If nobody has it, that absence is itself one of your findings and often the most valuable one.

Watch one full cycle of something. A month end, a production run, an order from enquiry to delivery. Following one process end to end reveals more than a fortnight of meetings about processes.

Weeks four to eight: form a view and test it

By week eight you should hold a private answer to four questions.

Question	What you are looking for
Where is the constraint?	The single thing limiting growth or margin — not a list
Who can make the step?	An honest assessment of each senior manager against where the business is going
What should stop?	Products, reports, meetings or customers that cost more than they return
What does the board not know?	The gap between the reported position and the real one

Test the view with the CEO and with one person outside the leadership team whose judgement you have come to trust. Testing it widely at this stage invites negotiation before you have authority to hold a line.

Weeks nine to twelve: finish one thing

Credibility in an operational role is built on completion, not on analysis. Choose one change that is meaningful, achievable inside the window and unambiguous when it is done — and finish it.

Good candidates: removing a report nobody uses, fixing a handover that everyone complains about, closing an overdue process, or resolving a supplier or contract issue that has been drifting. Bad candidates: anything requiring a system implementation, anything dependent on another function’s cooperation, and anything that cannot be declared complete.

The point is not the value of the change. It is that the organisation sees you close something out. Everything harder becomes possible afterwards.

The people question

Almost every incoming COO inherits at least one senior manager who is not equal to where the business is going. How this is handled shapes the whole tenure.

Reach a view within ninety days, but act deliberately rather than quickly. Moving someone in week four, before you have earned the right, reads as arbitrary and frightens the people you want to keep. Waiting a year is worse — the organisation concludes you cannot see what everyone else can, and your authority erodes quietly.

Where a change is needed, take proper advice on process before starting the conversation. Fair procedure matters both legally and reputationally, and guidance on handling it correctly is published by Acas. A well-handled exit is watched closely by everyone remaining.

Four ways the first 90 days go wrong

Arriving with the last company’s playbook. What worked elsewhere may not translate, and the team will detect an imported solution immediately.

Becoming the escalation point. If every unresolved problem routes to you by week six, the role stops being strategic. Build the mechanism that resolves issues without you and then defend it.

Announcing a transformation. Large change programmes declared in the first quarter usually reflect an incomplete understanding of the business. Start smaller and earn the right to the larger argument.

Neglecting the board. The board sees the CEO monthly and the COO occasionally. Executives who never build direct board relationships find they have no advocate when a difficult decision needs backing. The Institute of Directors publishes useful material for those new to board-level exposure.

Frequently asked questions

What should a new COO do in the first 90 days?

Spend the first three weeks listening and establishing where the cash goes, weeks four to eight forming and testing a private view of the constraint and the team, and the final month completing one visible change. Settle decision rights with the CEO before starting.

What should be in a COO 90-day plan?

A listening schedule covering two levels down, a review of twelve months of board papers and management accounts, an assessment of cost to serve, a private view on the senior team, and one completed early win. Avoid committing to a transformation programme within the window.

How long does it take a new COO to have an impact?

Visible impact usually lands between months three and six. Structural change — operating model, team composition, cost base — typically takes nine to eighteen months. Boards expecting measurable improvement inside a quarter are generally expecting the wrong thing.

Should a new COO restructure the team immediately?

No. Form a view within ninety days but act deliberately. Restructuring before understanding the business risks removing capability you cannot see, and moves made too early read as arbitrary to the people you want to retain.

What is the biggest mistake new COOs make?

Not resolving decision rights with the chief executive at the outset. Where the CEO says they will step back from operations but continues to intervene, the COO’s authority is undermined in front of the team — and the longer it goes unaddressed, the harder it becomes to raise.