634 - Stop Being the Bottleneck and Build Leaders Instead with Rachel Plowman
Why you should listen
- Rachel Plowman shares her authentic 9-month journey transitioning from project manager to COO at radianHub, offering real-world insights for anyone considering or navigating a leadership promotion in their consulting business.
- Learn practical strategies for managing P&L responsibility, project profitability analysis, and time tracking systems that actually work without crushing team morale.
- Discover how to successfully delegate while maintaining quality standards, plus proven approaches for client relationship transitions during organizational changes.
You might be wondering how to develop leadership within your team or whether your current team members can handle bigger responsibilities. In this episode, I talk with Rachel Plowman, COO of radianHub, who shares her transition from project manager to COO over 9 months. We dive into the real challenges of taking on P&L responsibility, managing project profitability, and building systems that support growth. Rachel provides concrete examples of how they improved margins, implemented effective time tracking, and navigated client relationship transitions during her promotion.
Key Highlights
- P&L Mastery: How Rachel learned to analyze project profitability and make strategic decisions based on operating expenses, pipeline forecasting, and resource planning rather than just taking any available project.
- Time Tracking That Works: radianHub's homegrown application with start/stop timers that can track work to the minute level, providing accurate project data without overwhelming developers.
- Leadership Transition Strategy: The organic 9-month process Russell used to gradually increase Rachel's responsibilities, including real-time mentoring and hands-on experience with actual business data.
- AI Integration Across Operations: How the team uses AI for documentation, code review, presentations, and Salesforce Agent implementations, with dedicated Slack channels and roundtables for sharing learnings.
- Client Relationship Management: Rachel's approach to transitioning client relationships while maintaining service quality, including gradual knowledge transfer and bringing new team members into existing relationships.
About Rachel Plowman
Rachel has been in information technology for much of her career, with 5 SFDC certifications. After beginning her career in financial services, she quickly transitioned into product ownership and project management with an emphasis on business analysis and software consulting. She has been in the Salesforce ecosystem as a consultative project manager and business analyst, while raising her family and enjoying life beyond software development.
Resources and Links
- Radianhub.com
- Rachel's LinkedIn profile
- 531 – Gearing Up for a Sale with Russell Badgett
- Right Click Prompt
- Previous episode: 633 - From 10% to 50% LinkedIn Acceptance Rates with Oleg Sobolev
- Check out more episodes of the Paul Higgins Podcast
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