One of the beautiful parts of a Strategy and Operations role at an early or growth stage company is that you are constantly bringing life to new areas of the business.
As has been discussed on past episodes of Aspiring Ops, the Chief of Staff is often tasked with building from zero to one and volunteering for everything in order to help serve as a catalyst for growth. However, one of the more overlooked parts of this responsibility is what comes next after you're successful in launching something new.
Unlike other areas of the business like sales, product, or marketing, Strategy and Operations leaders that find success in building something from the ground up are usually asked to let go of what they’ve built. And for some people this can be really difficult.
From the fear of working yourself out of a job or just letting go of something you’ve built, it can often be challenging to simply hand a successful project over to someone else. However, the process of building and transitioning is exactly what some of the best Strategy and Operations leaders are able to do so well.
Our latest guest on Aspiring Ops, Carmeanna Eberly, is no stranger to what it looks like to lead efforts in launching new initiatives, departments, or projects at a company. As a former Chief of Staff and current Director of Operations at Refine Labs, Carmeanna has been an integral part in building multiple high growth companies.
On this episode, Carmeanna shares how as a Strategy and Operations leader she is constantly evaluating whether her company has the right people and processes in place to continue growing. She also provides practical advice for aspiring Strategy and Operations leaders on how to find the right company and role in your career development, and why communication and proactiveness is key to any role in strategy and operations.
People and process.
While a Strategy and Operations leader might be focused on planting the initial seed of a new project or initiative, they ultimately have to find the right people and help implement the right processes to allow it to thrive.
For Carmeanna, it’s not only about providing a short-term solution, but more importantly, understanding that as a Strategy and Operations leader you have to be thinking of the future. As she shares, “You want to be able to successfully put processes in place, understanding that as you grow and as you scale, they will break...What defines success is that when they do break, do you have another level or another player in place that can evaluate that process, audit it, and take it to the next level.”
For those looking to get into Strategy and Operations, be prepared to build, but also to let go.
It’s part of what makes a role in Strategy and Operations so exciting. You are constantly searching for new opportunities across the business and driving them forward.
And for any early or growth stage company, there will never be a lack of new ideas to explore or challenges to solve. You just have to be willing to go find them.
Interested in learning more about Refine Labs? Check out their site here.
Want to learn more about how Elate is working with other strategy and ops leaders? Request a sneak peek today.
