Dear, New Ops Leader... (Part 1)

A quick series on the things I wish someone would have told me about Ops leadership roles...

Hi friends! Please excuse the short break in publishing — life with three children happened.

Well, remember when I asked for questions from you all?

I heard from a few of you (very cool people, I might add) and learned that you’re freshly-minted Ops leaders. Congrats/secret handshake.

This series is for you. For the next few weeks, I’ll be sending notes weekly to relay a few things I wish someone would have told me about Ops leadership roles.

As always, I’d love your feedback, thoughts or questions — so reply, or hit the comments.

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Part 1: Welcome — Don’t Panic

There are ops lead roles popping up everywhere – for good reason, too. Gone are the days of f*cking around until the next round of funding. Today, execution matters.

A strong ops lead is a company-impacting hire — but it’s also a really hard job. It’s generally poorly defined, and when a company is really young, its scope tends to be everyone else’s problems.

So, I sat down and wrote you (yes, you, New Ops Leader) a letter. It's going to be in multiple parts, because as it turns out, I have a lot to say!

1. Welcome to an incredible (but mostly thankless) job.

This role is all about enablement, which means you’ll be working mostly behind the scenes, problem-solving to make the company better. It’s going to be things like conflict resolution, process improvement, and digging into some really unsexy weeds to get things working that will be your “wins.” These things tend to be hard to measure and they tend to overlap with other people’s jobs, so attribution is damn near inappropriate. Get used to untangling things and exiting stage left, because that’s the job! 

How will you know you’ve been successful, you might ask? When Jill finally breathes that sigh of relief because her thorny, company-level blocker is now solved. Or when that backend eng team goes from massive gap in resourcing to stellar new hires onboarded, and fast. Or when you see nods and smiles in meetings instead of frowns. You start to become attuned to these things after a while – but catch the glimpse while you can, because the business moves on quickly. 

2. Don’t panic. 

You will see Everything. That. Is. Broken. Do Not Panic.

You’re in this role because you have a knack for spotting and then solving problems. But, fair warning: before you know it, it’s going to feel like Problem City, Population: 1 (you).

Before you go full Carrie Mathison, remember: this is going to be a marathon. 

Believing that every problem is existential and equal in urgency will burn you out faster than you can say “operational excellence”.

And while you’re swimming in the catastrophe of it all, try not to psych yourself out. Your conviction will bounce around, and that’s ok. If you’re looking for reasons this company will fail, you’ll find them everywhere. If you’re looking for reasons you’ll be uber-successful, you might find those too. Make Friends With The Monster Chewing On Your Leg by Molly Graham covers the mental struggle really well. 

How you handle problems will become a skill and eventually, a matter of style:

• Do you freak out? I once had a boss who lost her shit every time she learned something was awry (which was at least weekly). No matter when you encountered her, there was always something to panic about. I’ve never left a team faster. Not only did she create a culture of complaining and alarmism around her, but she quickly lost credibility with her peers (a la Chicken Little).

• Do you become the bad cop? Interrogating others on the presumption that they should have it all figured out by now? That’s not going to work.

• Do you avoid? That’s probably not the answer either.

Remember that when there is turbulence, passengers watch the flight attendants. If they are racing through the aisles with genuine fear in their eyes, start praying. If they are fine, keep sipping your Miller Lite.

• Can you calmly and objectively file the right things away under “not a ‘today’ problem?”

• Can you effectively elicit urgency and action, without defensiveness?

• Can you enlist support from managers and peers in a way that ensures the ownership resides where it’s needed (with the teams doing the work?)

These skills (prioritization and communication) can be developed, if you work at them. It also really helps to have the support of a coach, and some perspective from Ops leaders at other companies.

You’re not going crazy. It’s all normal. You got this.

(Click here for Part 2)

<3

Amanda

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Find the rest of Dear, New Ops Leader here:

Part 2: Pick Your Boulders

Part 3: Don't Lick the Cookie

Part 4: Stay Heads Up, While Heads Down

Part 5: Invest in Yourself

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This series was inspired by subscriber questions! Do you have one? Just reply here! I’d ❤️ to hear from you.

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Thanks for reading!

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