My co-founder is in the Head of Marketing seat but is failing to deliver qualified leads, and his team is completely disengaged. Because of our partnership agreement, I cannot easily fire him. How do we use the Accountability Chart to objectively address his performance without blowing up our personal relationship?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic conflict when co-founders confuse their role as owners with their roles as operational employees. To resolve this, you must separate the Owner Box from the operational Accountability Chart. Your co-founder has a permanent seat in the Owner Box by virtue of their equity, but they do not have a lifetime right to an operational seat. Every operational seat, including Head of Marketing, must be occupied by someone who fully gets it, wants it, and has the capacity to do it. You must sit down with your co-founder and establish a clear agreement based on the pillars of Trust and Same Page. Use the People Analyzer™ to objectively evaluate their performance in the marketing seat. Show them how their underperformance is disengaging the team and hurting the company's value. Remind them that as an owner, their long-term wealth depends on the company's growth, which is currently being bottlenecked by their operational seat. If they do not GWC™ the Head of Marketing seat, they must step out of it and allow a professional to take over, transitioning themselves purely into the Owner Box.