Mike Lyon didn’t follow the traditional path to Chief Operating Officer. Starting in finance at Flight Centre, aged 21, he spent two decades building an unusual combination of skills – commercial rigour, operational discipline, and a deep understanding of human psychology.

Recently placed at Eden Academy by James Curtis, Allura Partners’ Practice Lead for Operations and Commercial, Mike now leads operations for a rapidly growing childcare business. 

We sat down to discuss what happens when founders bring in a COO, how to build trust in founder-led businesses, and why psychological safety matters more than most executives realise.

Q. Having started your career in finance, what pulled you towards operations and people leadership?

I spent seven years in finance at Flight Centre, working up to Assistant Financial Controller. That role was critical in teaching me how to make commercial decisions and think about financial strategy. But what I really loved was connecting with people – making something complicated accessible so they could drive better decisions in their business.

During that time, I became fascinated by the psychology of how humans work. I put myself through four years of personal development courses – Tony Robbins-style programmes – really unpacking who I was and how to get the best out of people through connection and psychological safety.

When I moved into operations, managing 23 retail stores, I had this beautiful mix of commercial acumen and people skills. And I always gravitated towards underperforming businesses. If Flight Centre had one area making a million dollars and another losing a million, I wanted the one that was losing. I had this sense of purpose that what mattered more than my pay packet was showing people who didn’t believe they could succeed that, with the right capability and strategy, they could do anything.

I got so much satisfaction from going into struggling businesses and building belief. I also think it built my resilience. There was a period where I wasn’t in a great space personally. I took six months off and really threw myself into building healthy habits and strong routines. When I came back to Flight Centre, I was a different person – physically, mentally. That experience taught me you can help people not just with work goals, but as humans trying to evolve.

Q. After 20 years at Flight Centre, you moved to Royal Caribbean, then into childcare. What was that shift like?

Royal Caribbean was short – I was only there a year before COVID hit and the cruise sector shut down. But it forced me to think differently about influence. I wasn’t managing my own team; I had to build relationships with Flight Centre’s sales team to drive bookings. A very different challenge.

Then I did something that probably sounds mad – I worked as a bank teller at CBA for five months during COVID. It was humbling. I’d been in influential roles, and suddenly I was on the front line again. But it was so important. It knocked my ego down in a way that made me more relatable when I walked into new roles.

Childcare was a completely different beast. I joined Only About Children first in sales and customer experience, then moved into operations and compliance. The sector is heavily regulated – you can’t drive sales the same way because there’s so much compliance thought around how you fill a centre. A lot of executives are very compliance-driven, focused on managing risk rather than leading and inspiring people.

Q. How did the Eden Academy opportunity come about?

James Curtis at Allura Partners approached me about the role. The founders, Chris Sacre and Sean Collins, had built the business while running other ventures, and they were at the stage of needing someone dedicated to operational leadership.

My role is to drive growth as fast and as safely as possible while balancing commercial performance with compliance and people management.

It’s a complex task. With each state having different legislation and standards for childcare, there’s no one best way to manage compliance across a network of 1,700 people.

But what has struck me from day one has been the trust they placed in me. They’re not proprietorial; they’ve really stepped out to let me position myself as a key leader.

Q. What were your priorities in the first 100 days?

First, building relationships with both the centres and the support team. Having never had a COO, people were asking, ‘What does the COO do and why does he need to be here?’ I wanted them to feel comfortable asking that, so we could work it out together.

Second, we didn’t have any real structure around how we operated. I set up a clear operating rhythm so people knew the value they could add and the role they played. That gave them purpose.

Third, I designed a roadmap for the next six months – a short-term plan that enabled centres to see what we were doing to solve problems, and that enabled our support team to know what they needed to deliver.

Q. Why start with six months rather than a longer-term strategy?

It’s about meeting people where they are because some people feel vulnerable about their capability to reach a long-term goal. But if you can develop them in a way that makes them excited about it, it’s a different outcome.

What’s interesting is we recently spent two days planning, and the team said, “We don’t want to work in six-month sprints anymore, we want to work in two years”. So, I showed them data from the last five years and where we’ll be in two years based on the current trajectory. Now we’re planning together for what we need to do differently.

Q. You mention psychological safety a lot. Why is it so central to how you operate?

Because everything is people versus product. In this sector, especially, we talk about child safety, but also educator safety, and the sales team’s safety to make the right decisions. If people don’t feel safe, they can’t perform.

My key purpose is to make the complex simple and the simple engaging. So while we’re working together in a highly regulated environment, when each person feels confident to perform their own role, we can achieve our ultimate objective. Remove the noise, bring it down to one or two simple actions.

Q. What advice would you give founders thinking about bringing in a COO?

Trust them. Really trust them. Chris and Sean placed more trust in me than any business I’ve worked with before. They didn’t micromanage or question every decision – Instead, they’ve considered me a key business partner from day 1 to really help capitalise on my capacity to make a difference.

Also, be clear about why you’re bringing someone in. Is it because complexity is overwhelming the business? Because you need someone dedicated to operations while you focus on growth? Whatever it is, be honest about it so you hire for the right capability.

Q. And for people aspiring to COO roles?

Everything comes back to self. When you learn who you are, you can build strong, authentic relationships. And as a leader, you’ll probably move faster because the relationship you have with your boss will be the same as the relationship you have with your team.

Just as important is the understanding that for any business to be truly successful, all roads lead back to operational success. So expect the unexpected. The challenge is in the things going to plan and NOT to plan on a daily basis. Every day is different.

And honestly? I still have imposter syndrome. Even now, I think, ‘Who’s the executive you’re talking about?’ But I’ve learned that’s quite common. What matters is showing up, doing the work, and trusting that if people believed in you enough to put you in the role, you probably belong there.

Q. What’s next for you at Eden Academy?

The focus right now is growth and improvement, continuing to do better. I feel so lucky to be in this role. It’s a gift every day to be trusted to do this work. I’m focused on proving I can be a strong executive and taking the business where it needs to go.

Allura Partners specialises in executive search for private equity-backed, ASX-listed and corporate organisations. Contact us to discuss your next professional opportunity.