- The Intersection of Operations, Technology, and Relationships
- Assessing Operational Leadership Skills in COO Interviews
- 6 Key Questions to Help Identify the Best COO Candidate in an Interview
- The Link Between Decision-Making Discussions and Job Satisfaction
- Why a Holistic Interview Approach Matters for COO Selection
The role of Chief Operating Officer has fundamentally changed. What once focused primarily on efficiency and cost control now requires a leader who can navigate digital transformation while building resilient, human-centered organizations.
This shift isn’t theoretical – it’s happening in leadership teams across every industry. The traditional COO playbook of cost optimization and process efficiency, while still important, is no longer sufficient. Today’s operational leaders must simultaneously manage existing business complexity while building capabilities for an uncertain future.
For organizations hiring COOs, this creates both opportunity and risk. Get it right, and you’ll have a leader who can bridge strategy and execution in an AI-driven world. Get it wrong, and even the best strategic plans will fail at implementation.
When evaluating candidates, use a multi-dimensional approach that assesses:
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Technical competency: domain expertise, performance improvement history, and relevant operational systems experience. COOs don't just implement new tools—they redesign operations around digital capabilities. The best follow what BCG calls the 70-20-10 rule: 70% of their effort goes to people and processes, 20% to technology infrastructure, and just 10% to algorithms 1.
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Behavioral intelligence: decision-making methodology, problem-solving approach, and adaptability under pressure. With 63% of executive leaders resigning or considering resigning because of dissatisfaction with how decisions are made in their organizations, assessing how an executive makes decisions as a proxy for culture helps ensure optimal longevity.2
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Leadership capabilities: communication effectiveness, cross-functional collaboration, and talent development skills. Successful COOs build learning organizations that can adapt to rapid change. They create systems for collaboration that reduce decision delays while maintaining quality, which is essential when 87% of organizations face talent shortages.3
This framework identifies candidates with both the operational acumen to drive immediate improvements and the leadership skills to build sustainable systems that maintain excellence through growth and market changes.
The Intersection of Operations, Technology, and Relationships
A COO’s effectiveness extends beyond operational metrics to relationship-building across the enterprise, complemented by technology fluency throughout the organization. The CEO-COO partnership requires both functional complementarity and interpersonal alignment — when this relationship lacks clarity on decision rights and communication patterns, execution suffers regardless of individual capabilities.
The Gap in Typical COO Interviews
Traditional COO interviews often overemphasize technical operational expertise while undervaluing equally critical dimensions like change leadership and organizational development. This omission creates significant risk: candidates with impressive operational credentials may lack the adaptive capabilities required for sustainable success in rapidly evolving business environments.
Assessing Operational Leadership Skills in COO Interviews
Here are key areas to evaluate when assessing a candidate’s operational leadership capabilities:
Navigating Cross-Functional Leadership
Look for evidence of breaking down organizational silos with specific examples of initiatives that improved enterprise-wide performance, not just departmental metrics.
Bridging Strategy and Execution
Strong candidates translate strategic objectives into operational reality while providing execution insights that shape strategy. Evaluate how they cascade priorities into goals, resources, and systems that connect daily activities to strategic outcomes.
Mastering Change Management
Assess candidates’ approaches to leading major transformations, with attention to how they’ve sequenced initiatives, managed resistance, and institutionalized improvements.
Adapting to Digital Transformation
Evaluate experience implementing technology that transformed operations, their approach to data-driven decisions, and how they’ve balanced innovation with stability.
Growth and Scaling Operations
Look for experience building operational systems that enable rather than constrain growth, with evidence of designing processes and structures that anticipate expansion needs.
Workforce Development
Assess their approach to building leadership capabilities throughout the organization, including systematic talent development programs and succession planning that creates sustainable operational excellence.
Crisis Management and Resilience
Evaluate their experience managing significant operational disruptions, focusing on both immediate response capabilities and long-term resilience building that prevents future crises.
By evaluating both operational expertise and relationship capabilities, you’ll identify COOs who can translate vision into reality while building the cross-functional alignment essential for sustained performance.
Read More: How to find the right CEO with 6 interview questions
6 Key Questions to Help Identify the Best COO Candidate in an Interview
When conducting COO interviews, asking the right questions is crucial for gaining valuable insights into operational leadership capabilities. These questions explore key aspects of operational excellence, transformation leadership, and organizational development that define modern COO success.
1. “Can you describe a major operational transformation you led that involved significant technology integration? What was your implementation approach, and what resistance did you encounter?”
This question assesses the candidate’s ability to lead complex change initiatives that combine operational improvement with technological advancement. Pay attention to their systematic approach, change management methodology, and how they balance technology implementation with human factors. An ideal COO candidate should demonstrate the ability to sequence changes effectively while maintaining operational and people performance during transitions.
What to Look For:
- Evidence of structured transformation methodology
- Clear approach to managing technology and human change simultaneously
- Specific examples of overcoming resistance through engagement rather than mandate
- Quantifiable outcomes that demonstrate both operational and cultural improvement
- Understanding of the 70-20-10 principle, focusing primarily on people and processes
When to Ask This Question:
Exact Timing
Key Participants
Optimal Context
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2. “How do you approach building operational capabilities that can scale with rapid business growth while maintaining quality and efficiency standards?”
Scaling operations requires strategic thinking beyond immediate problem-solving. This question reveals how candidates think about building systems, processes, and capabilities rather than just managing current operations. Look for responses that show systematic approaches to capacity planning, process standardization, and capability development that anticipate future needs.
What to Look For:
- Evidence of building scalable infrastructure, not just solving immediate problems
- Thoughtful sequencing of operational investments
Balance between standardization and flexibility - Specific examples of operations enabling rather than constraining growth
- Quantifiable improvements in efficiency, quality, and capacity metrics
When to Ask This Question:
Exact Timing
Key Participants
Optimal Context
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3. “Describe a time when you had to align multiple departments with competing priorities to achieve a critical operational objective. What mechanisms did you create to drive collaboration?”
Cross-functional alignment is essential for operational success. This question uncovers how candidates navigate complex organizational dynamics and create systematic collaboration rather than relying on personal influence alone. Look for evidence of governance structures, decision rights frameworks, and conflict resolution processes that institutionalize collaboration.
What to Look For:
- Systematic approaches to governance and decision-making
- Evidence of creating frameworks that outlast personal involvement
- Specific mechanisms for resolving conflicts and competing priorities
- Balance between functional expertise and enterprise outcomes
- Measurable improvements in cross-functional collaboration and execution speed
When to Ask This Question:
Exact Timing
Key Participants
Optimal Context
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Read More: Explore a measurement framework that we use to improve adaptive cognition & leader success
4. “Tell me about a significant operational disruption or crisis you managed. What immediate actions did you take, and how did you build long-term resilience into your operations?”
Crisis management reveals both tactical capabilities and strategic thinking. This question addresses how candidates balance immediate response with systematic improvement. An effective COO should demonstrate the ability to manage urgent situations while using crises as catalysts for building stronger, more resilient operational systems.
What to Look For:
- Clear crisis response methodology with evidence of decisive action
- Balance between immediate stabilization and stakeholder communication
- Systematic approach to identifying and addressing root causes
- Specific examples of building resilience that prevented future disruptions
- Quantifiable improvements in business continuity and risk mitigation
When to Ask This Question:
Exact Timing
Key Participants
Optimal Context
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5. “How do you balance data-driven decision making with operational intuition when managing day-to-day operations under pressure?”
Understanding a candidate’s approach to balancing analytical rigor with practical judgment is crucial for operational effectiveness. Look for responses that show thoughtful integration of data insights with experiential knowledge, particularly in high-pressure situations where perfect information isn’t available. Strong COOs demonstrate flexibility in their decision-making approach while maintaining systematic thinking.
What to Look For:
- Clear framework for integrating data analysis with experiential judgment
- Evidence of maintaining decision quality under time pressure
- Specific examples of when they relied more heavily on intuition versus data
- Systematic approach to continuous improvement of decision-making processes
- Understanding of when to escalate versus when to decide independently
When to Ask This Question:
Exact Timing
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6. “How have you developed operational leadership talent throughout your organization, and what impact did this have on overall operational performance?”
Organizational development capabilities distinguish transformational COOs from purely tactical operators. This question assesses their approach to building leadership bench strength and connecting talent development to business outcomes. Look for systematic development programs, measurable impacts on performance, and evidence of creating leaders who can sustain operational excellence independently.
What to Look For:
- Systematic talent development programs rather than ad-hoc approaches
- Clear connection between leadership development and business performance metrics
- Evidence of building leaders who progress to broader organizational responsibilities
- Specific examples of succession planning and internal promotion success
- Quantifiable improvements in leadership capability and organizational performance
When to Ask This Question:
Exact Timing
Key Participants
Optimal Context
Follow-up with
The Link Between Decision-Making Discussions and Job Satisfaction
Our research reveals a compelling connection: organizations that discuss and understand how a leader thinks, processes information, and makes decisions report 1.4 times higher executive satisfaction. This finding underscores the importance of assessing decision making during the COO selection process.
When evaluating candidates, explore their decision-making methodology through structured questions about past operational challenges. Strong candidates articulate clear decision frameworks that can adapt to your organization’s culture while maintaining operational excellence. Look for evidence of inclusive approaches that incorporate diverse perspectives without sacrificing execution speed.
Equally important is understanding how candidates approach communication during critical decisions. The most effective COOs demonstrate transparent communication practices that build trust during uncertainty. Assess their conflict resolution strategies by presenting scenarios where operational priorities conflict with other functional objectives—their response will reveal their collaborative capacity.
Effective operational leaders also demonstrate systematic approaches to talent development tied to business outcomes. Ask how they’ve built operational bench strength and implemented succession planning in previous roles. The best candidates show evidence of developing leaders who progress to broader organizational responsibilities.
Why a Holistic Interview Approach Matters for COO Selection
Traditional COO interviews often overemphasize technical operational expertise while undervaluing equally critical leadership dimensions. This creates significant risk: candidates with impressive operational credentials may lack the adaptive capabilities required for sustainable success.
A comprehensive assessment approach evaluates four integrated dimensions:
- Operational excellence – the fundamental ability to deliver consistent results through disciplined execution
- Strategic partnership – capacity to translate business strategy into operational reality while providing essential execution insights to strategy development
- Change leadership – demonstrated ability to lead complex transformations while maintaining business continuity
- Organizational development – track record of building operational capabilities that scale with business growth
- People/Team management – ability to manage and align multiple departments with competing priorities to achieve the organization goals
By systematically evaluating candidates across these dimensions, you identify COOs who deliver immediate operational improvements while building lasting organizational capabilities. These leaders thrive in dynamic environments, successfully navigating complexity while developing teams that sustain operational excellence.
Kingsley Gate’s executive search approach applies this integrated assessment methodology, ensuring candidates possess both operational excellence and the leadership capabilities to drive long-term value creation.
Connect with our operations practice specialists for a consultation tailored to your specific operational leadership requirements.
