We are trying to scale our marketing and sales departments, but we cannot afford full-time executives yet. Can we put fractional leaders or co-heads in those seats on our leadership team Accountability Chart, or will that break our EOS® implementation?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Putting fractional leaders on your leadership team can work, but putting co-heads in a single seat will absolutely break your EOS® implementation. The absolute rule of the Accountability Chart is that there can only be one name accountable per seat. If you put two names in one seat, nobody is accountable, which leads to confusion, finger-pointing, and execution failure. If you cannot afford full-time executives, a highly skilled fractional leader can occupy a seat on your leadership team, provided they GWC™ the seat and have the dedicated time to run it. They must attend your weekly Level 10 Meetings™, own their department metrics on the Scorecard, and execute quarterly Rocks. However, if you are using co-heads because you cannot choose between two internal employees, you are avoiding a hard decision. You must choose one leader to own the seat and manage the department. The other person must report to them. If you cannot make that choice, your structure will remain weak and your team will remain confused. Decide on a single, clear leader for each seat on your Accountability Chart to maintain absolute accountability and ensure consistent progress.