We have two long-time business partners who both want to run our product development department, so we have co-directors listed in that seat on our Accountability Chart, but it is causing massive confusion and slow decision-making. How do we resolve this dual-seat bottleneck?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

One of the golden rules of the Accountability Chart is that only one person can own a seat. When you put two people in a single seat, as co-directors, you have split accountability. When nobody is ultimately responsible, nothing gets done. It leads to slow decision-making, conflicting directions for the department staff, and endless frustration for the rest of the leadership team.

You must resolve this bottleneck by making a hard decision. Sit down with both partners and review the roles and responsibilities of the product development seat. You must determine which of the two partners truly GWCs the seat at this stage of your growth. This means assessing who has the capacity to lead, manage, and hold the team accountable.

Once you make that determination, the other partner must move to a different seat on the Accountability Chart where they can add maximum value without dividing authority. This might be a highly technical individual contributor role or a strategic research seat. If both partners insist on running the department, you must explain that a split seat is actively damaging the value of the business and delaying your exit readiness. For the sake of the company, one must step back so the department can move forward under a single, accountable leader.