When not to hire an ops manager
I recently spoke with three very different business owners. Different industries, different client bases, different daily challenges. Yet all three of them told me the same thing, almost word for word:
“What we really need is to hire an ops manager.”
At first glance, it sounds like a good idea. The business is growing and becoming more complex. Clients are happy, but things behind the curtain feel messy. The owner is stretched thin. The solution must be to bring in someone to own operations.
But this is often the wrong answer. Or maybe the right answer, but at the wrong time.
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The “Hire and Hope” trap
Here’s the problem. Too often, business owners bring in an ops leader to establish a new level of order and profitability. But the owners haven’t yet done the work to define what good looks like. They are “hiring and hoping” that the right talent will know how to fix what’s broken.
How does it usually play out? The owner gives a high-level mandate: Make the business run better. The new hire is now trying to learn how the business works, get to know the team, and make sweeping changes in the org all at once. They end up chasing problems without the right expertise or relationships to be successful. Frustration builds, results stall, and the person either leaves or becomes costly overhead with little impact.
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The step you can't skip
The instinct is natural: things feel messy, so hire an ops manager. But in most cases, the better move is to take on the critical fixes yourself first. Here’s why:
You need systems that already work. It’s much easier to run a strong system than to fix a broken one. If the system already works reasonably well, finding the right person becomes less difficult and more affordable, and the odds of success skyrocket.
You need to know what good looks like. If you can’t define good operations, how will you know if your ops manager is delivering? Owners don’t need to be experts, but they need enough experience to set the bar.
You need buy-in from the team. Most leaders miss this: It’s not enough to design better systems. You have to build employee engagement and commitment along the way. You have to make people want better systems. Trust and accountability start at the top, with current leaders.
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Build, then operate
So when is the right time to hire an ops manager?
First, create systems that really work. If you know what needs to be done, do it. If you’re not sure, bring in an expert for a few months to help. You need someone who’s done this before, who can quickly diagnose problems and identify solutions. This isn’t a permanent or full time responsibility. It’s targeted, high-impact work to establish the foundation: the right workflows, scorecards, and accountability mechanisms. Note: The owner must be involved in this process, helping to shape repeatable solutions and providing leadership to bring the team along.
Once the system works, create an internal role to run it. Managing a well-built operating system is very different from building it in the first place. The skill set, the temperament, even the background are usually not the same. Builders thrive on fixing. Operators thrive on consistency. Expecting one person to do both almost always ends in disappointment.
This order matters. Build it yourself (with or without help), then hand it over. Make the investment in getting it right.
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The takeaway
When three business owners in three completely different industries all land on the same conclusion—"we need an ops manager”—it reveals something important about where mid-sized businesses get stuck.
But the truth is, the next best step usually isn’t another hire. Not yet.
What’s really needed is the confidence and experience to recognize what “good ops” looks like in your world. Do the work first, and when you eventually bring in an operations manager, they’ll step into a structure designed for success, not a mess they have to untangle.
