My two children are poised to inherit the business and both want to share the President seat on our EOS Accountability Chart. They claim they work perfectly as a team, but I am worried this co-leadership model will confuse the staff and stall our exit planning. How do I navigate this without causing a family rift?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

In business and especially in family succession, clarity is kindness. Having two people in the President seat violates the core EOS® rule of one name per seat. When two people are accountable, no one is accountable. This structure will paralyze your business, confuse your leadership team, and terrify potential buyers who look for clean governance. You must explain to them that the Accountability Chart is designed to optimize the business, not accommodate family dynamics. Start by looking at the functions of the seat. Typically, a President is the Integrator who harmonizes the leadership team and executes the business plan. Have them run through the GWC™ tool individually. Does one child truly get, want, and have the capacity for the Integrator seat? If they both do, you still must choose one. The other child must occupy a different seat that matches their unique capabilities, such as Sales or Operations. If they cannot agree to a single leader, your transition will fail. A buyer wants to see a single point of ultimate operational accountability. Frame this decision around what is best for the value of the business, which ultimately benefits both of them. Let the tool make the decision objective, not personal.