Book Review: How to Be a Chief Operating Officer by Jennifer Geary
If you’re a founder, a business owner, or even a fractional leader, there’s a point where wearing every hat stops working. Jennifer Geary’s book, How to Be a Chief Operating Officer, hits that moment right between the eyes.
This isn’t a theoretical business book. It’s a straightforward, practical guide to what a COO actually does and why this role is so critical for growing organizations. What I love most about it is how clearly Geary defines the COO not just as an “operations person,” but as the bridge between vision and execution.
She breaks the role down into three core responsibilities:
- Culture – shaping the way people think, work, and lead.
- Strategy – turning the founder’s vision into a living, breathing plan.
- Change – driving transformation, managing growth, and building systems that can handle it.
But beyond those pillars, Geary goes deeper. She talks about how a COO often has to oversee 16 different disciplines — from finance and risk to HR, technology, and compliance. And here’s where I really connected with the book.
I’ve shared this book with several of my clients — particularly founders and CEOs who were struggling to understand the COO role. They saw it as “just another layer” or “another employee.” I explained, using Geary’s framework, that the COO isn’t about hierarchy — it’s about efficiency. It’s about bringing order, clarity, and accountability into the daily rhythm of the business.
Every company is different, and not all 16 disciplines live under one person. Sometimes governance might sit with the CFO, compliance under HR, or transformation under the CMO. The COO’s job is to integrate, not to own everything. That perspective alone has helped many of my clients rethink how their leadership team should actually function.
I was so impressed by this book that I reached out to Jennifer Geary and connected with her on LinkedIn. She’s written other books as well, but this one stands apart because it’s both practical and relatable. It aligns almost perfectly with how I operate as a Fractional COO and business transformation advisor. I even purchased multiple copies and sent them to a prospective clients so they could understand the function before engaging me. It makes conversations faster, smarter, and more productive.
Lessons Learned
- The COO isn’t a title — it’s a function. It’s not about adding layers; it’s about making the business run smoother, faster, and stronger.
- Structure must follow strategy. You design the COO role around the company’s goals, not the other way around.
- Integration is leadership. The best COOs don’t specialize in one domain — they connect finance, operations, people, and technology into one cohesive engine.
- Education builds alignment. When founders understand what the COO actually does, it transforms how they lead and delegate.
- Great tools make complex things simple. This book is one of those tools, it bridges understanding between vision and execution.
Bottom Line:
If you’re scaling your business and feel like the wheels are starting to wobble, this book should be your next read. Jennifer Geary doesn’t just define what a COO is — she shows why every growing company eventually needs one, and how the right person in that seat can completely change the game.
About Jennifer Geary "MD, COO & CRO with 25+ years in Finance, Tech & Risk (FinSvcs, Non-Profit). Author, speaker & mentor (emerging businesses, Enterprise Ireland Scale). Chartered Accountant, PRINCE2, CISA, CISSP, Sustainable Finance & Ethical AI certified."
To learn more visit https://csuiteframework.co.uk/
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