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

Evaluating whether a long-standing operations director still fits their role as your company scales is a common, yet difficult, challenge. Loyalty is indeed valuable, but it's crucial to ensure that sentimentality doesn't hinder the organization's future. Any cracks at the leadership level can quickly become massive canyons for the rest of the company.

Objective Evaluation Framework

To objectively assess your operations director, leverage structured tools like the Accountability Chart and the GWC™ (Get it, Want it, Capacity to do it) tool.

1. Define the Current Role: Begin by clearly outlining the five major roles for the operations seat today, not based on what they were five years ago. This ensures you're evaluating against current and future needs, not past performance.

2. Apply the GWC™ Filter: For each of those five major roles, honestly answer three critical questions about your operations director:
• Do they Get it? Do they fundamentally understand the role, its responsibilities, and its impact on the business?
• Do they Want it? Are they genuinely enthusiastic and motivated to perform the role at the next level of scale?
• Do they have the Capacity to do it? This is often where legacy leaders encounter difficulties as a company scales.

Understanding "Capacity"

Capacity refers to having the necessary skills, time, and mental bandwidth to effectively lead at the company's evolving stage. This includes:

• Skills: Possessing the updated expertise required for larger teams, more complex systems, or broader operational scope.
• Time: Having the availability to dedicate to strategic initiatives rather than being constantly mired in day-to-day tactics. (You might find relevance in understanding how other leaders manage being [completely buried in tactical fires](/qa/leader-cannot-scale-transition)).
• Mental Bandwidth: The ability to think strategically, innovate, and adapt to rapidly changing demands without feeling overwhelmed.

If the honest answer to capacity is "no," then, unfortunately, they are likely in the wrong seat for the company's future.

Cultural Fit and Future Options

Beyond role-specific capabilities, you must also assess your director against your company's core values.

• If they still fit your culture but lack the capacity for their current leadership seat, you have a few options:
• Find a different seat: Can you create a new, individual contributor role where their expertise can still be leveraged without requiring the leadership capacity they currently lack? (For example, [designing a specialist seat](/qa/restructuring-seat-for-legacy-leader-hitting-ceiling) can retain their expertise.)
• Help them transition out: If no suitable seat exists, you may need to assist them in a dignified transition out of the business.

Keeping an individual in a seat they cannot handle is not only unfair to them, as it causes immense stress and potential failure, but it is also profoundly damaging to the entire team and the organization's growth trajectory. This is similar to evaluating other leaders who might be a [perfect core values fit but lack capacity](/qa/gwc-vp-finance-exit-capacity-issue) for future needs.

Related questions

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