Our VP of Marketing has been with us for twelve years and is a beloved pillar of our company culture who perfectly models our core values. However, as we scale and try to prepare for an exit, she is clearly failing to manage our digital lead generation and analytical return on spend, which she now needs to do. How do we make this tough GWC call without destroying team morale or disrespecting her long-standing loyalty?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest human challenges an owner faces. When a leader is a perfect core values fit but fails the GWC™ test for their current seat, keeping them there is actually doing them a disservice. You must evaluate this objectively.

GWC™ stands for Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it. Your VP of Marketing likely gets and wants the seat, but lacks the analytical capacity to manage modern digital lead acquisition. To handle this without destroying morale, you must separate the person from the seat.

Start by administering a conative assessment like the Kolbe Index to understand her natural instincts. If she is naturally high in Quick Start and low in Fact Finder, she will struggle to analyze complex data sets no matter how hard she tries. Share these insights with her constructively. Explain that the business has evolved, and the requirements of the seat have changed.

Have an honest conversation about where her true strengths lie. If she has the capacity for a different seat, such as brand storytelling or customer relations, restructure the Accountability Chart to transition her to that new, high-value seat. If no such seat exists, you must make the difficult decision to help her exit the company with grace and a generous severance package. Keeping someone in a seat they cannot fulfill because of legacy loyalty will ultimately stall your growth and show the rest of the team that accountability is optional.