VIDEO | As advisor and author, Stephen Miles is an authority on the varying roles of chief operating officers and their relations to their CEOs. In Wednesday’s closing session of the PostTrade 360° Stockholm conference, he shared a long list of useful tips.
Manager of the “central nervous system” of the business – this may the version of COO types that fits with the largest number of actual COOs in the investment operations space. (For a background, read this teaser interview with Stephen from before the event.)
With the metaphor of swim lanes versus full-pool water polo, he pointed to the importance of building the understanding of how the work by each person in the organisation interacts with that of others – even when it is not clear to us how.
Probably the most central concept in Stephen Miles’ take, is trust. He points out that it is a result of a process, not something that is spontaneously there from the start of a relation. “Trust is the output. The input is ‘I’ve got your back’ leadership,” he says.
Stephen Miles has been featured in publications such as Forbes, BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, and his writing includes co-authoring the book “Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO”.
• PostTrade 360° Stockholm 2022 took place on 29–30 March. News around the event is gathered here.
• The conference info site, with detailed agenda, is here.
• Sign up here for our next conference, in Oslo on 5 May.
• By the way … are we connected on LinkedIn already, among the 2,300 post-trade pros who are? Follow us here.