CEO/COO Pairing: Determining Compatibility
A successful CEO/COO pairing comes down to the value compatibility of the principals.
Values, abilities, and skillsets are the core foundation for workplace performance. Values are what people will go to war over. Abilities, the way you think and behave, are slightly more malleable. It's important to optimize and understand what you are getting. Skills can be acquired. With great values and abilities, you can acquire great skills quickly.
Having alignment with your potential partner around values means that you’ll have a similar framework for understanding and interpreting the world. No relationship will work in the long run if your values are not aligned. Another way to phrase this is to optimize for the “who” of the CEO/COO relationship rather than the “what”.
Aligning on the values will create a strong foundation for potential success. Without value alignment, the CEO and COO are likely to address issues in the organization in fundamentally different ways -- and more poignantly, are unlikely to be a match for long term success.
There’s no definitive way to reach value alignment, but in this case, I’m actually a fan of personality assessments. The more comprehensive ones like Enneagram and DiSC provide comprehensive frameworks for value assessment. Outside of that, I think it’s important to discuss the following:
Biggest motivators
Biggest goals
Value-based behavioral interview type questions (“Tell me a time when…”)
Valence has a comprehensive post on determining if someone is right for a role.
A significant mismatch means that dealing with issues might result in two different interpretations and potential outcomes. For a critical and foundation partnership, this will be an unacceptable long term solution.
There are examples of CEO/COO pairings that have done this well and entire businesses based on making sure values are well aligned. Bridgewater is notorious for focusing on values in both their interview and ongoing practice. Likewise, my favorite examples of value-aligned businesses are Berkshire Hathaway and Capital Cities. Leaders in these two sprawling organizations shared similar beliefs, ethos, and practices that enabled massive mutual success.