One of our co-founders is a great person and aligns perfectly with our core values, but as we scale, he is consistently failing to GWC his seat as head of operations. He is resisting stepping down because he feels it will hurt his status. How do we handle this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest calls a business owner has to make. You have a right-person-wrong-seat situation with a co-founder. Because they have equity and history with the company, this issue is loaded with emotion and fear of status loss.

You must separate ownership from operations. Being a shareholder is a completely different relationship to the business than holding an operational seat on the Accountability Chart. You must explain to your co-founder that the business has outgrown his current operational capacity, and keeping him in a seat he does not GWC is hurting the company they helped build.

Have an honest, high-vulnerability conversation during a dedicated meeting outside the office. Walk through the GWC tool objectively. Ask him if he truly gets, wants, and has the capacity for the current operational demands of the seat, which now require advanced systems and leadership scaling.

Work together to find a safe landing spot. There may be a specialist seat, such as key account management or technical product development, where he can add massive value without the burden of operational leadership and LMA. If no such seat exists, or if his ego will not allow him to step down, you must negotiate an exit from operations while preserving his shareholder status. Keeping him in the wrong seat will eventually destroy both the business and your relationship.