Our Director of Engineering has slowly accumulated ten different roles on our Accountability Chart, claiming that only they have the technical expertise to handle them. How do we break up this single super-seat before it becomes a massive operational bottleneck?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leader who hoards roles is a single point of failure and a massive bottleneck to scalability. No matter how talented your Director of Engineering is, they do not have the capacity to execute ten distinct roles effectively.

This accumulation often happens slowly as a company grows. To break up this super-seat, you must enforce the rule that no seat on the Accountability Chart should have more than five core roles.

Sit down with your Director of Engineering and list every single task they currently perform. Use Keith Cunningham's 'How might I' framing to ask: How might we delegate these technical responsibilities so that our Director can focus purely on high-level engineering leadership?

Group their ten roles into logical, distinct functions:
- Keep the five most strategic roles in the Director of Engineering seat.
- Create a new Quality Assurance seat.
- Create a new Systems Architecture seat.

Evaluate your existing team members to see who can step into these new seats, or make a plan to hire externally. Your Director of Engineering might resist, fearing a loss of control. You must address this by prioritizing personal connection and showing them that shedding these roles actually elevates their impact and prepares the business for future growth.