My COO is retiring, and I want to promote our customer service manager into the seat. She has been with us forever, but she lacks financial experience. Can we just remove the financial oversight role from the COO seat to make it fit her, or is that violating the structure before people rule?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Modifying an executive seat to fit the specific limitations of a favorite candidate is a classic leadership mistake. It is putting the person before the structure, which always backfires as you scale. The Accountability Chart must be designed objectively to serve the business, not the people currently on your payroll. If your business requires a Chief Operating Officer or Integrator who can manage both daily operations and financial oversight, then those roles must remain in that seat. If you strip the financial role to accommodate your customer service manager, you create a major structural gap. Who is going to own the financial oversight? If it falls back on you, or if it is neglected, the business suffers. To evaluate this objectively, use the GWC tool. Does she get it, want it, and have the capacity to do the job? Capacity includes intellectual, emotional, and physical capability, as well as experience. If she lacks the financial experience to run the seat as designed, she does not have the capacity. You must keep the structure intact and look for an outside hire or a different seat for her. Use Keith Cunningham's framing: How might we structure our executive team to ensure total financial and operational accountability, regardless of who sits in the seats? Keep your structure pure, and hire to the seat.