Our operations director has been with us since we started, but we are scaling fast and I suspect the seat has outgrown them. How do we objectively evaluate whether a legacy leadership team member still has the capability to run their seat at our next level of scale?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest challenges a business owner faces. Loyalty is valuable, but you cannot allow sentimentality to compromise the future of the organization. Cracks at the leadership level will appear as massive canyons to the rest of the company.

To evaluate your operations director objectively, use the Accountability Chart and the GWC™ tool. Write down the five major roles for the operations seat today, not five years ago. Then, honestly answer three questions: Do they get it? Do they want it? Do they have the capacity to do it?

Capacity is usually where legacy leaders struggle as a company scales. Capacity means having the skills, time, and mental bandwidth to lead a larger team, implement new systems, or manage complex operations. If the answer to capacity is no, they are in the wrong seat.

You must also assess them against your core values. If they still fit your culture but lack the capacity for the leadership seat, you need to find a different seat where they can succeed, or help them transition out of the business with dignity. Keeping them in a seat they cannot handle is unfair to them and damaging to the team.