I am an operations and change management whiz turned executive coach. I love getting to see all sides of a business, being in the eye of a storm and creating fresh perspectives and possibilities in the chaos. Blending strategic thinking with execution is just fun!
It’s a beautiful thing to bring people together to build a solid team that pulls together in service of a powerful vision.
It takes a uniquely driven and multi-talented person to play the pivotal role of leading ops —jacks-of-all-trades who can build functional relationships across the org, while making systems and processes make sense.
Ops people see the big picture while they can also swoop into details to solve the trickiest problems with a diversity of people, dancing back and forth to get it done.
Typically, ops execs are the most versatile, engaged, and hard-working people I know — my favorite people!
In this episode and others, I intend to celebrate and inspire ops heroes like you and support you when you feel stuck.
The Endlessly Urgent Mindset of the Operations Executive
So much of leading operations involves thinking about what you need to do and how you’re showing up. There’s never enough time in the day, never an empty inbox and change is never, truly ‘over’.
There’s no finish line in leadership —
it requires constant regeneration and growth to
not just keep up but stay ahead of the ever-changing tide.
In my mid-forties, after investing my entire professional identity into a 15-year ops career in a rapidly growing business, I experienced a major upheaval. It was happening for many reasons, including that I had completely overloaded myself with responsibility.
After dinner and getting my daughter in bed, I was back on the laptop until 11 most nights. I had a bright and growing team I loved. My boss called me their ‘secret ninja’ because of my ability to walk into a languishing area of the business and turn it around.
But I was caught up in the tide of it all:
- My intention to read one email would spiral into reading 50.
- My relatively new team didn’t have much-needed context.
- Plus, our systems were transitioning so handoffs were far from seamless. Things were lost in the cracks.
One day, because I caught things others would not, someone I respected referred to me as the ‘drip pan’. That felt yucky – but true.
I’d lost control of my time. Everything felt urgent. I was bad at holding people accountable and overcompensated for them. It was easier to just do it myself.
Can you relate?
Failing to See the Big Picture Amidst Constant Ops Projects
I never paused long enough to assess and address the big picture. I remember desperately wishing to connect with someone that could understand how complicated and intense my experience was. It felt kinda lonely, even though I was always with people.
My aunt who was the head of nursing administration in a hospital — so no stranger to hard work, big change or office politics — was watching me in the work churn one Saturday and said: “Laur – what are you doing? It’s not worth it. If you dropped dead, they’d replace you in two weeks.”
Ouch. That just stunned me. Like someone threw a bucket of ice water on me. I became instantly aware of the auto-pilot mode I’d been stuck on. And I realized how underneath all I was getting done I had a habit of panic and frustration.
Know what I mean?
Stopping to See the Big Picture of My Ops Exec Life
I stopped what I was doing, took a long walk and got a good night of sleep, I decided to take on my own experience as a Project with a capital P. I vowed to bring the kind of intentionality like it was assigned by the boss. I even drafted a project scope.
I knew somehow that getting a hold of my approach would not just benefit me but everyone around me.
I found a few precious people I trusted to help me stretch my thinking and assumptions kindly – including an executive coach. I knew I needed structure in place to stay on track, or else I’d slide back to autopilot and that simply wasn’t sustainable.
Taking on myself as a project was fascinating.
It led me to figure out my personal brand — what I uniquely offer —
and that shifted my whole orientation toward my work.
Suffice it to say that, soon I was less hands-on doing and more orchestrating.
The same person who called me the ‘drip pan’ introduced me years later as the ‘queen of reinvention’ – a title that resonates and delights me.
I recently interviewed more than a dozen ops execs and know that my experience is a common part of next-level leadership evolution. If this resonated with you, know that you are not alone! And you are already awesome.
In the next episode I’ll talk about why declaring your personal brand can be one of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make.
You can’t stop the chaos, but you can change the game.