Our Customer Service Director has the intellect and desperately wants her seat, but personal issues outside of work have completely depleted her emotional and mental bandwidth, causing her to drop critical balls. How do we objectively evaluate the capacity element of GWC when a leader has the technical ability but lacks temporary mental bandwidth?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a long-time leader has the intellect and the desire but is dropping balls due to personal crises, it tests your leadership. However, you must separate empathy for the person from the objective reality of the seat.

The capacity of GWC represents more than just physical hours. It includes the emotional and mental bandwidth required to lead a department and make critical decisions. If outside stressors are preventing her from performing, she currently lacks the capacity for the seat.

To address this objectively, compare her current performance against her Kolbe B Index results. This will show if the self-expectations of her job are causing severe conative stress when combined with her personal situation.

You must have a direct, compassionate, but unsentimental conversation.

Acknowledge her core values fit and her historical performance. Then, present the objective data of where balls are being dropped.

Ask her if she has the realistic capacity to meet the expectations of the seat right now.

If she does not, you must agree on a temporary transition. You can adjust the Accountability Chart by moving her to a lower-stress, individual contributor seat for a defined period, or offer her a structured leave of absence.

Do not allow the department to suffer indefinitely. Keeping someone in a seat they cannot currently GWC is unfair to the team and damages company trust.