How to Hire a COO in Commercial Real Estate
There is no standard COO job. The role is whatever the CEO and the company need it to be — executor, change agent, scale builder, partner, successor in waiting — and that shape shifts with the stage of the firm. Hiring a COO without defining which version of the role you are filling is the most common reason the role fails inside the first 18 months.
Pick the version of the role.
Nathan Bennett and Stephen Miles, in their study of the role for Harvard Business Review, identified seven distinct COO archetypes — executor, change agent, mentor, partner, heir apparent, MVP, and the other-half partner.1 The research is twenty years old. The pattern is older. Most failed COO hires fail because the firm hired one archetype and asked the person to be a different one.
Before opening the search, the question is which version of the role the firm actually needs. A vertically integrated CRE operator hiring an executor COO is not running the same search as a growth-stage owner-operator hiring a scale builder. The reporting line, the team underneath, the relationship to the CEO, and the time horizon all change with the archetype.
Right-hand chemistry is part of the job, not a side effect.
The COO is the only senior role whose effectiveness depends as much on the working relationship with the CEO as on the candidate’s individual track record. The same three factors that shape every senior hire apply, but they apply through the lens of partnership.
- Resources
What the operating function actually owns.
Operations in CRE can mean property operations, leasing, construction, asset operations, technology, or all of the above. Operations in a growth-oriented operator can mean everything that is not finance or investments. A candidate bred inside a clean lane will operate differently if asked to run an undefined one.
- Culture
How the CEO actually wants to operate.
Some CEOs want a partner who pushes back. Some want an executor who runs the play. Some want a successor in training. Confusing one with another at the offer stage is where most COO hires unravel — usually six to twelve months in, when the actual operating dynamic surfaces.
- Future
Where the firm is going next.
A COO hired to scale a firm from $1B to $5B is doing different work than one hired to integrate an acquisition or carry the business through a CEO transition. The right candidate is built for the firm two years from now, not just the firm hiring today.
Where COO hires fail.
The most common COO hiring failures share a small set of patterns.
Hired as a partner, treated as an executor. Strong candidates accept the role because they were promised real authority. Six months in, the CEO is still making every meaningful call. The COO leaves, and the firm starts the search again.
Hired as a successor, never positioned to succeed. “Heir apparent” only works if the board, the CEO, and the candidate are aligned on a real timeline. If the heir-apparent framing is recruiting language without internal commitment, the candidate eventually realizes it and leaves.
Big-platform operators inside lean firms. A COO from a 200-person platform sometimes cannot operate inside a 30-person one without the support, the systems, and the layers their previous firm provided. The talent is real. The scale is wrong.
Functional depth without right-hand range. Strong operators promoted from a specific function (head of operations, head of leasing, head of property management) sometimes cannot widen into the cross-function partnership the COO seat actually requires.
Start with the CEO.
Most COO searches begin with a job description. The better ones begin with a conversation with the CEO about what they actually want to keep doing themselves and what they want a partner to take. The honest answer to that question is the brief.
Our process anchors on which version of the COO seat the firm is filling, the operating dynamic the CEO wants, and the trajectory the firm is heading into. We approach passive candidates directly and reference for the working relationship as carefully as for the operational track record. The engagement structure is described on How We Engage.
COO searches across all three of our verticals.
24 Hour Search runs COO and operating leadership searches across Commercial Real Estate, Professional Services, and Growth-Oriented Owners & Operators. The operating function looks different in each, but the question of which version of the role the firm is filling is the same. Adjacent role pages: President, Chief Investment Officer, and CFO.
Sources
- Nathan Bennett & Stephen A. Miles, “Second in Command: The Misunderstood Role of the Chief Operating Officer,” Harvard Business Review, May 2006. hbr.org
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not the title.
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