We want to scale our business three times larger in the next three years. Should our Accountability Chart reflect our current ten person reality, or should we build the structure for the larger business we want to become?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To scale successfully and prepare for a clean exit, you must design your Accountability Chart for the future, not the present. Specifically, you should structure your chart for where the business will be twelve months from now.

If you design it based strictly on your current ten person team, you will lock yourself into existing bottlenecks and fail to anticipate the leadership seats you will need to support your growth. Start by looking at your three year target and one year plan in your V/TO®.

Ask yourself what structure is required to deliver that level of revenue and operational complexity. Map out that future Accountability Chart without putting any names in the seats. You will likely see new seats that do not exist today, such as dedicated marketing, advanced data analytics, or AI systems management.

Once this forward-looking structure is agreed upon, identify which seats are currently vacant or occupied by people who are sitting in multiple seats. This becomes your hiring and delegation roadmap. It allows you to systematically replace yourself or other overloaded leaders before the business breaks.

If you only look at your current reality, you will always be reactive, hiring in a panic when someone hits their ceiling. Build the structure for the next stage of your journey, identify the gaps, and fill them intentionally.