Our operations director has been with us for eight years and is a perfect culture fit, but as we expand to multiple locations, he is struggling to manage the logistics. He insists he wants the seat and understands it, but his execution is failing. How do we objectively evaluate his GWC for this scaled-up seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Evaluating a long-tenured leader who is struggling requires you to separate love from performance. You must run a clean GWC check on this individual, looking closely at the capacity component.

First, define the five core roles of the scaled-up operations director seat on your Accountability Chart. These roles must reflect what the business requires today to manage multiple locations, not what the seat required five years ago.

Next, sit down with the leader for an open and honest conversation. Walk through the three elements of GWC. Does he get it? Does he understand the deep systemic demands of multi-location logistics? Does he want it? Does he truly desire the stress of managing geographic expansion, or is he just holding onto the status and title?

Finally, evaluate capacity. Capacity includes intellectual, emotional, physical, and time resources. If his execution is failing, he likely lacks the strategic capacity to manage the increased complexity of the scaled seat. He may have reached his ceiling.

If he does not GWC the seat, you have a right-person-wrong-seat issue. Keeping him in a seat he cannot perform damages the business and creates organizational friction. Since he is a perfect core values fit, your goal is to find or create a different seat on the Accountability Chart where he does GWC the roles. If no such seat exists that aligns with your V/TO, you must make the hard choice to transition him out of the company.