We are scaling our sales department and have two top-performing reps who want to share the VP of Sales seat as co-directors because they have always worked as a team. Can we put both of their names in that single leadership seat on our Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An Accountability Chart is built on structure first, people second. Having two people share a single leadership seat like VP of Sales violates the core EOS rule of one name per seat. When two people share a seat, accountability is completely diluted. If sales targets are missed, who is responsible? When everyone is accountable, no one is accountable.

To resolve this, you must look at the function, not the people. Decide on the right structure for your organization to scale. If you truly need a single leader for the sales department, there can only be one seat at the top. This person must fully GWC the seat, meaning they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it.

You have a few structural options. One person takes the VP of Sales seat and the other reports to them in a high-level sales executive seat. Alternatively, you can divide the sales department geographically or by market segment, creating two distinct seats on the Accountability Chart with clear, non-overlapping roles.

Forcing a co-director structure because you want to avoid a difficult conversation is a classic business mistake. Take dedicated Thinking Time to design the structure that the business requires to reach its three-year picture. Once the structure is set, then place the right people in the right seats.