When Founders Become the Bottleneck: Notes from the COO Seat

Scott Michajluk
Sep 1
4 min read

August 22, 2025

By Scott Michajluk | Fractional COO | Founder, GO Consulting

Earlier this week I sat with a founder to map the roles inside his company and set fair compensation bands. When we reached the ranges for supervisors, schedulers, and lead technicians, he was taken aback. The numbers were well above what he earned when he held those jobs on the way up. I see this often: the market moves, the company matures, and a founder’s memory becomes the benchmark. Hiring to yesterday’s wages feels prudent, yet it limits the talent you can attract, strains retention, and quietly slows growth. That conversation got me thinking about founders who become the bottleneck and where a fractional COO can help. The assistance matters, but the outcome still depends on the founder’s readiness to accept the constructive feedback and follow through on a clear operating plan.

What I see repeatedly

Identity tied to control. The company exists because the founder made fast calls and wore every hat. Letting go can feel like loss of identity, not just a change in role.
Unclear division of work. Decisions drift between sales, operations, and finance. People default to the founder for answers, which keeps speed high but maturity low.
Process built on memory. Work gets done by heroic individuals, rather than by a simple system that anyone can run on a normal day.
Metrics that do not steer. Dashboards show activity, not cause and effect. Leaders debate opinions because the data cannot settle the question.
Hiring without role design. Strong people are placed into weak structures, then judged when the structure fails them.
Decision debt. Small exceptions pile up. The team executes yesterday’s rules with today’s workload and tomorrow’s expectations.

Signs you might be in your own way

Team members ask, “What does the founder want?” more often than, “What does the plan require?”
Meetings end with energy but no owner, deadline, or standard.
You approve discounts, schedules, or hiring because “this one is special.”
You carry the hardest customer conversations because no playbook exists.
Weekly numbers are reviewed, yet nothing meaningful changes by the next review.

If you recognize several of these, the problem is not effort. It is architecture.

How a fractional COO helps

A capable fractional COO does not replace the founder’s judgment. The role converts judgment into an operating model that others can run.

Translate vision into a working plan. Convert strategy into a one-page set of goals, owners, and deadlines that fits inside the capacity you actually have.
Design roles and decision rights. Clarify who decides, who does, and how to escalate. Put it in writing so the team stops guessing.
Build simple, enforceable process. Map the path from lead to cash, service to renewal, and hire to productivity. Remove steps that add friction without adding value.
Install a weekly operating rhythm. Set a cadence for planning, metrics, and issue resolution. Make the calendar do the heavy lifting.
Create a small set of governing metrics. Choose a handful of inputs and outcomes that truly predict performance, then review them the same way every week.
Strengthen the management bench. Coach your leads to run their lanes, give feedback that lands, and handle conflict early.
Protect margins through policy. Define pricing rules, service areas, and exception guardrails so profitability is not negotiated on the fly.

This work produces clarity and speed without founder dependence. It also surfaces tradeoffs the organization has avoided. That is the moment when founder readiness matters most.

What only the founder can do

Invite candor and keep it. Ask for the truth about what helps and what hurts, then resist the urge to defend the old way.
Choose the plan over preference. When a tough exception shows up, follow the rule you approved. If the rule is wrong, change it once, in writing, for everyone.
Stop rescuing. Allow managers to own results. Coach in private, hold standards in public, and let the system carry weight.
Model calendar discipline. Protect the operating rhythm. Do not skip the weekly review, even in busy weeks, especially in busy weeks.
Communicate through structure. Use the plan, the process, and the metrics as your language. Your team will copy whatever you model.

A practical starting plan

If you want movement in thirty days, use a narrow, visible wedge. Choose one critical workflow and make it your pilot.

Pick the lane. Example areas include pricing and discount approvals, service routing and travel rules, or order-to-cash handoffs.
Map the current state in one hour. Name every step, owner, and tool. Capture where work waits or rework occurs.
Decide the rule set. Write the two or three policies that remove the biggest sources of friction and margin loss. Keep them short and enforceable.
Assign owners and measures. One person accountable, a small set of inputs and outputs, and a weekly target review.
Run for two weeks, then adjust. Hold the line on exceptions. Fix the rule if it proves wrong. Keep the change log.
Publish what you learned. Share the before and after with the whole company. Extend the approach to the next lane.

You will know it is working when managers make consistent decisions without chasing you, when the numbers begin to settle, and when meetings move faster because the structure carries the conversation.

Where GO Consulting fits

Our role is to make the plan real, keep the cadence steady, and build the managers who will scale it. We bring an operator’s eye to your day-to-day work, establish simple systems that hold under pressure, and coach your leaders until the business runs on process rather than proximity to you.

The truth remains the same. A fractional COO can design the blueprint and stand with your team while it takes shape. Only the founder can choose to hear the hard parts, accept the tradeoffs, and execute the plan when it is inconvenient.

If you are ready for an honest operating review and a clear first month of changes, we are ready to help you begin.