Our executive assistant has gradually accumulated enormous informal power, approving vendor bills, managing software access, and fielding staff disputes, effectively operating as an undocumented Chief of Staff. How do we clean up shadow seats on the Accountability Chart without disrupting daily operational speed?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Shadow seats are toxic to accountability. When an employee wields operational authority that is not explicitly documented on the Accountability Chart, direct reports become confused, leadership team members get undermined, and significant key-person risk develops in the shadows of your business.

Your first step is to call out operational reality. If your executive assistant is running vendor negotiations, triaging internal personnel disputes, and filtering leadership team communication, they are no longer an administrative assistant. They are operating as an unvetted operations coordinator or chief of staff. Bring this issue to your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ and IDS® it with the Integrator.

Evaluate the actual work being performed. Look at the tasks this person owns and ask: Do these accountabilities belong inside an existing seat, like Finance, Operations, or the Integrator, or does the business genuinely require a dedicated operational coordination seat? If those roles belong to department heads who have abdicated their duties, pull the authority back to the rightful seats immediately.

If the business genuinely needs an administrative coordination seat below the Integrator, create it explicitly on the Accountability Chart. Define its five major roles in black and white. Then, run that individual through the People Analyzer® to ensure they pass your core values and have complete GWC™ for the newly documented seat. If they pass, you have legitimized their role, established formal boundaries, and given the rest of the company clear visibility. If they fail GWC™, you must strip the authority back to the leadership team immediately.