My co-founder is my best friend and fits our core values perfectly, but she is completely failing the GWC™ check for the Product seat she holds. Our product development is stalled, and the team is frustrated. How do we address this without ruining our friendship or the business?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a high stakes leadership situation that requires courage, vulnerability, and radical candor. You cannot ignore a GWC™ failure, even if it is your co-founder and best friend. When someone passes core values but fails GWC™, they are a right person in the wrong seat. Keeping them there is unfair to the team, bad for the business, and ultimately toxic to your friendship because resentment will build. To resolve this, separate ownership from seat accountability. Your co-founder's status as an owner does not change, but her seat on the Accountability Chart must. Sit down with her outside of your normal workspace and use the Trust Creation Process to framework the conversation. Explain that you love having her as a business partner, but the current Product seat requires skills and focus that do not align with her natural conative strengths. Review her Kolbe A™ profile together. If she is a high Quick Start who loves brainstorming but struggles with the rigorous Follow Thru needed for systematic product management, she is simply in the wrong seat. Work together to identify a seat on the chart that fits her strengths, such as a strategic advisory role, or a partnership development seat. If no such seat exists, she must step out of active operations entirely and transition to a board level ownership role. This transition will be painful initially, but protecting the health of the business is the only way to preserve both the company and your friendship.