Our Chief Marketing Officer was brilliant when we were a small team, but now they are drowning in administrative work and refuse to transition to a true leadership role. They keep trying to execute everything themselves. How do we determine if they can actually scale or if we need to replace them?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

As a company scales, the demands on your Chief Marketing Officer change from tactical execution to strategic leadership. If your CMO is drowning in administrative work and refusing to delegate, they are stuck in the doing phase, which creates a severe bottleneck for your growth.

To determine if they can scale, you must evaluate them strictly using the GWC™ framework.

First, assess if they truly understand the difference between executing marketing tactics and leading a marketing department. Do they get the strategic demands of the seat?

Second, do they actually want the responsibility of managing people, budget, and long-term planning, or do they secretly prefer being an individual contributor?

Third, do they have the capacity to lead? Capacity includes their conative strength. If they have a high Follow Thru but are being asked to constantly innovate and take risks, they may be experiencing conative strain.

To make a clear decision, give them a short, defined runway. Set clear, measurable Rocks for the quarter that focus entirely on delegation, systemization, and leadership.

If they hit these Rocks and successfully delegate their tactical work, they have proven they can scale. If they continue to micromanage and ignore their leadership responsibilities, you have your answer. They do not GWC™ the scaled-up seat, and you must move them to an individual contributor role or find a strategic leader to run the department.