Our Head of Partnerships passes our core values and wants the seat, but she consistently fails to deliver on the revenue targets and lacks the strategic capacity to manage our largest enterprise relationships. How do we handle this GWC™ call when she is a beloved member of the early team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the hardest calls an owner has to make, but keeping a beloved team member in a seat they do not GWC™ will eventually destroy both the person and your business. Your Head of Partnerships has the G (Get it) and the W (Want it), but she clearly lacks the C (Capacity).

Capacity includes the mental, physical, emotional, and technical capability to do the job at your current scale. What worked when you were a three-million-dollar company rarely works when you are scaling past ten million.

To handle this situation, you must separate the person from the seat on your Accountability Chart. Do not lower your standards or change the seat's accountabilities to match her current capacity. That will only bottleneck your growth.

Instead, have an honest, compassionate conversation. Show her the Accountability Chart and explain that the current seat requires a level of enterprise strategic management that is not a fit for her strengths.

Because she is a great culture fit who lives your core values, your goal should be to find or create a seat that she truly GWC™'s. For example, she might be an incredible individual contributor managing mid-tier accounts or leading local community partnerships.

If you have a seat that fits her capacity, transition her into it. If you do not have a seat that fits her capacity and needs, you must help her transition out of the business with dignity. Keeping her in a seat she cannot succeed in is not kindness; it is leadership avoidance.